Oel Ngati Kameie - I See You
by SparklyPurple
Summary: Melissa Scott, xenolinguist and girl genius, is chosen to join the Avatar Project on Pandora. Disappointed by life, raised on a dying planet, left with nothing but pain and despair, her heart swore long ago not to ever fall in love... Can it start to beat again for a certain rough Na'vi warrior? Tsu'teyxOC, JakexNeytiri, NormxTrudy, and many more! Rated T just to be safe. R&R!
1. Prologue - From Earth To Pandora

**Sooooooo, I'm back with a brand new Avatar story, replacing 'Love will find away'. I apologize to whoever was waiting for an upload to that story, but I didn't feel like continuing it, not because I had no ideas... on the contrary, I had so many ideas that I had no idea (no pun intended) how to put them together and create a decent story.**

**So, I'm gonna try with this new one. Basically, it is a sort of rewriting of the movie, with a few... okay, maybe a lot of twists and a few new characters. Also, there's a little surprise awaiting you, if you'll read carefully this first chapter a.k.a. the Prologue.**

**Hope you'll like it! **

**Prologue – From Earth To Pandora**

Melissa's P.O.V.

'_I've heard that you don't dream at all in cryo. _

_Some says it feels like being in a deep coma: you could sleep for years –which is what is going to happen to me in a few hours– and then you wake up without feeling the time skip._

_Someone else, less romantic, says it feels like being beaten up after a few shots of tequila. I hope this last statement is not true: I've already experimented what it feels like to be dead drunk –only once in my lifetime, but it still counts– and I'm certainly not eager to experiment it again.'_

"I really gotta do it now? Seriously, can't it wait? I mean, I haven't slept in, like, twenty-six hours, and I really need to take a nap before shipping." I shouted, rather annoyed.

"You'll have six years to sleep properly, and your first video log needs to be recorded before the departure!" a nearby tech shouted me back "Get it done, I'll be back in a hour!" he said then, going away without giving me any chance to reply.

I snorted, annoyed, but did what I was told and looked at the small camera recording in my hands, without even making an effort to smile.

'_Okay, better get this done as soon as possible. Location, RDA building near New York. Time, July 23__rd__,years 2148. _

_As soon as that moron of a tech get back, I'll be hoisted inside a special cryo-bed inside a massive ship, destination Pandora, a planet in the Alpha Centaury Galaxy, 4,4 light-years far away from Earth. From what I've heard, once inside the cryo-bed, I'll be drug-induced in a six-year-long sleep, which is the time it takes to go to Pandora. So, doing a few calculations, since now I'm 19, I'll be 25 once on Pandora. And the interesting fact is, it won't look as if six years had passed. Good thing, I guess. Not that I really care._

_I've always wished to go to Pandora, since when I was little. That's why I spent hour after hour, day after day, week after week studying the native language, reading as many books as I could, trying to learn as much as my brain could take about the culture, the flora, the fauna... anything that could have booked me a one-way ticket to Pandora. As soon as I graduated high school,at age 16 –earning the highest rank on my Foreign Languages class, may I add–, I immediately signed up for a three-year-long course about the Avatar Project. It was an elite project, so the students allowed to attend it were very few. Amongst them, I was the only girl. _

_Now, don't get any strange idea. I didn't fuck anyone. I can guarantee you, and so can my personal medic, eheh. No doubt I was picked for my brain. I'm what people call 'child prodigy' or 'girl genius'. My brain works like a super computer. Mental calculations? No problem. Quoting something by heart? Of course. Doing something after having seen it only once? You betcha. Although my strong point is learning languages: in 19 years, I was able to learn quite a few different languages, including French, Spanish, Italian, English of course, Latin (essential for taxonomies), Japanese, and of course Na'vi (the native language of Pandora)._

_At the end of my third year of course, when I was starting to lose the hope of finally leaving the Earth, they came –with 'them' I mean the RDA Men In Black– and told me and two of my fellow 'colleagues', Norm Spellman and Tom Sully, to get ready to pack our bags ASAP. Jake, Tom's twin brother, a wheel-chaired ex-marine, will be joining us as well. I'm still wondering how in the world Tommy was able to convince the 'corporate bigwigs' to let his brother join us. I actually tried to ask him, but whenever I did, he merely shrugged and smirked his signature confident smile, a perfect carbon copy of Jake's. It takes all of my willpower not to punch them square in the face whenever they flash that smile of their, and I'm not a violent person._

_I gotta go now. I can hear footsteps approaching me. No doubt it is that nasty tech who is supposed to lead me to the ship. About time._

_Well, I guess my first video log ends now. And I guess I'll record my next one from Pandora._

_I'm ready. Ready to leave this rubbish dump they still insist on calling Earth. Ready to start a fresh new life in a brand new world._

_Goodbye Rubbish 'Earth' Dump. _

_This is Melissa Scott, signing off.'_

**Done with the Prologue. What do you think? Like it? Don't like? What do you think about Mel? Did you enjoy my little surprise –I'm asking the ones who actually read the Prologue... I'm kidding–? **

**Why do I keep asking foolish questions?**

**Same old story, R&R!**


	2. Fresh Meat

**Hi there people, how ya doing?! I was a bit disappointed upon receiving only three rewievs, but after all I couldn't expect that much in the beginning, especially after quitting my first Avatar story like that. If you're worried I might give up this story as well, don't worry, it is my firm intention to continue it. Maybe I won't be able to update soon, between high school and all, but I'll do my best and this time I won't quit. Word of honor.**

**Anyway, here's the first chapter. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 1 – Fresh Meat**

P.O.V. Melissa

I slowly open my eyes, feeling –alas– exactly the same as I felt the morning after my 18th birthday, when I experimented the first and last hangover of my life. Damn it. And fuck you two, Sullies!

Right in front of my face, two drops of _something _–I pray it is sweat or tears and not something _else_– slowly float toward each other until they melt together. Proof I'm in a low gravity atmosphere right now.

My cryo-bed opens up like a drawer, the straps and harnesses preventing me from floating freely in the low gravity atmosphere of the ship, the ISV Venture Star. A doctor approaches me by floating in the air as if he's swimming in the ocean.

"Are we there yet?" I ask him as soon as he reaches my cryo-bed, surprised by how coarse and rough my voice sounds after six years I didn't use it. My throat feels as dry as if I'd swallowed sand and I can't help but cough vigorously.

The doctor waits patiently until I stop coughing, then answers me "Yeah, we there, sunshine. We there." in a fatherly fashion while checking my pulse to make sure my heart beats regularly "You'll find your bag, some water and some food inside the locket with your name on it" he says, pointing at the direction where a mass of other people dressed like me –a plain short-sleeved t-shirt and comfy sweatpants– is heading, before starting to unstrap the harnesses "Get them and head toward the waiting area with the others."

I somehow manage to cough out a chocked 'thank you' before the last strap is loosened, finally allowing me to float freely in the zero-gravity atmosphere. I gotta admit is quite funny 'swimming' weightlessly the air, but I have no time to waist, so I head toward the locket with the name 'Scott, M.' and open it, actually finding my bag, a bottle of water and two bars of chocolate inside it. I quickly take everything and float weightlessly, munching a bar of chocolate, toward the same spot the other passengers of the ship are heading too, while one of the many doctor floating back and forth explains the newly awaken passengers what to do. So I slept for exactly only 5 years, 9 months and 21 days.

I happen to catch a glimpse of my reflection while floating near a polished wall of the ship, noticing that I haven't actually changed physically despite having slept for all this time. 'Those cryo-bed really are miraculous', I think with a smirk, stopping briefly to wink at my own reflection. Hey, I may not care that much about my looks, but I'm still a girl!

_Up ahead, there it was. Pandora. I grew up studying it, I dreamt all nights of my life to go there, and now that I was finally about to land on it, my mind just couldn't realize that I was finally there. There it was, the goal of a lifetime, the prize for all my studies, the cure for the pain I had to suffer back on Earth. And I was just about to land on it!_

In the waiting area, pressed amongst a crowd of about a thousand people, I notice three things: 1) there are very few females, and among them, with my 19 –or should I say 24?– years, I'm actually the youngest; 2) everybody, male or female, is looking at me (no surprise, I'm used to be watched with awe or suspect because of my young age); and 3) none of my friends is nowhere to be seen!

I almost jump in fear when I feel someone poking at my back, and I hear a faint laugh while I turn to see who did it. That laugh was unmistakable: Hot Road Jake, of course!

"_Wiya_* Jake, you almost scared the shit outta me!" I grit between my teeth, earning a second laugh from my crippled ex-marine friend.

"Yeah, I noticed" he says, smirking cockily. I snort, muttering a faint '_Skxawng_**' under my breath as Jake chuckles amused.

"Where are your brother and Norm?" I ask him, temporarily dropping my 'angry friend' façade, more worried about not finding them and being stuck with only Jake.

He shrugs "I was going to ask you." he says, before explaining "I guess we'll find them at the base."

"_Wiya_" I curse again, my voice sounding more like a growl by now. Jake chuckles again as I stuck my tongue out at him, making him laugh even more.

After a few more hours of waiting, some Valkiria shuttles reach the Venture Star and we are divided inside them, in groups of about 50-60 people, in order to be finally brought on Pandora. Luckily I end up in the same Valkiria as Jake, but unfortunately I'm also the only female among a crowd of men, marines and jarheads at that, who begin staring at me as soon I step inside. Trying my best to ignore the insistent stares and not to snap angrily at them, I sit as close to Jake, who is already strapped to the bench, as I can, strapping myself on as well.

The journey from Venture Star to Pandora lasts about 20 minutes. Once the shuttle enters the Pandoran atmosphere, the temperature increases to the point that both me and Jake begin sweating copiously.

"Exo-packs on! Let's go! Exo-packs on!" a voice yells out of the blue. Still panting and sweating, I hastily reach for my bag, quickly taking out my exo-pack, a mask which allows us humans to breathe on Pandora –the Pandoran air is very dangerous for us: it has very little oxygen and the toxic dusts could make us faint in 30 seconds and kill us in 4 minutes–, and putting it on my face; Jake and the others do the same, as quickly as me.

"Let's nobody be dead today! Looks very bad in my report!" yells the same person who ordered us to put our masks on. I lift my middle finger lightly toward him, so lightly that nobody, especially that jerk, notice.

Still a few more minutes, and then the jerk barks at us to unstrap ourselves and get our bag, getting ready to exit the shuttle as soon as the doors open.

"When the ramp comes down, go directly into the base. Do not stop!" the jerk yells for the umpteenth time. As if I'd ever wish to stop and admire some concrete. _Skxawng_!

As soon as _skxawng_ n° 2 finishes his talk, the ramp finally comes down, and the toxic air invades the shuttle. As the jerk shouts a few more 'encouragements', everybody except me and Jake begins running outside; it takes him a little more time to get ready, since he first has to unpack his wheel-chair, then hoist himself and his crippled legs on, and at last throw his sack over his shoulders. I'd be more than willing to help him, but Jake's as stubborn as a donkey and doesn't let anybody do it, not even Tom, so the most I can do is wait for him.

_Growing up with a Lieutenant Diplomat for a father and a Medical Officer for a mother, I soon learned that there is no such thing as an ex-marine. My mother had to quit her job in the Army due to medical problems –such irony–, but she always remained the same strong woman that fought for what she believed. Same thing for Jake when he came back from Venezuela, paralyzed from the waist down, courtesy of a bullet in the back. Even now, he may be out, but he'll never lose the attitude._

Once he's ready and set and begins slowly wheeling himself to the exit, I follow him closely, ignoring the jerk's shouts about speeding up our pace. I glare at him for a moment before finally stepping out the shuttle and inside the base which will be our home for the next three years, Hell's Gate. The landing area is buzzing with camouflage-cladded men holding threatening guns, running back and forth.

_Back on Earth, these guys were army dogs. Marines fighting for freedom, like Jake and Dad. But out here, they're just hired guns, taking the money, working for the company. Such shame._

"Watch out, Jake!" I scream, noticing an Ampsuit walking right toward him. He quickly wheels himself away from the Ampsuit's path, and the jerk inside it, instead of apologizing for almost driving him over, turns and shouts "Look out, Hot Road!" before walking away.

"Hey, nobody calls Jake like this but me, you _skxawng_!" I yell angrily at him, earning a series of surprised looks from some soldiers and a chuckle from Jake.

While walking toward the base, we happen to pass by two soldiers, one fair-skinned and the other black-skinned, whose name tags says respectively 'Wainfleet, L.' and 'Fyke, S.', who are shouting dirty comments about some 'fresh meat', obviously talking about us newcomers.

I can feel their stares scanning my body and Jake's wheelchair ("Hey, check this out man: meals on wheels", "Oh man, this is just wrong!", "But look at that nice piece of a bod walking beside it!", "Now, this is what I'm talking about when I say 'fresh meat'!") as we pass beside them.

"Watcha looking at, limp-dicks?" I snarl at them while Jake glares at them as well, obviously thinking the same thing as me. Hey, just because I'm a girl genius, don't expect me to speak all uptight and snobbish like Artemis Fowl!

"Looking at ya, hot stuff!" 'Wainfleet, L.' replies with a smirk, still staring at my butt. 'Fyke, S.' just wolf-whistles.

"Let's go Mel!" Jake says, pulling at my arm "It doesn't worth your time." I snarl one last time before nodding. While we walk away, I can't help but hear Wainfleet's last sentence "Lots of men rotated back to Earth on a wheel-chair. First time ever someone arrives already on it."

Luckily for that piece of shit, just when I'm seriously pondering pondering about going back to yank his exo-pack way from that ugly face of his, something else catches my eyes and makes me temporarily forget about suppressing him: a 'dozer crosses mine and Jake's path. Its massive wheels, way bigger than an average-sized adult man, have many long arrows, decorated with feathers of all colors, sticking from them. Na'vi arrows.

*A little time skip*

"You are not in Kansas anymore! You're on Pandora, ladies and gentlemen. Respect that fact, every second of every day!"

Jake and I reach the main building of the base just as the head of the security, an extremely muscled man around sixty with tanned skin, gray crew-cut hair, piercing blue eyes and three long scars running down the right side of his face, obviously the result of a close encounter with a Pandoran predator, aViperwolf, judging by the size. If it would've been a Thanator, he'd probably be dead.

"If there is an hell, you might want to get there for some R&R, after a tour on Pandora. Out there, beyond that fence, every living thing that crawls, flies or squats in the mud wants to kill you and eat your eyes for Jujubes."

At the security chief's last statement, I can see many faces going pale in disgust. I would've gone paler as well, if only my skin wouldn't already be snow white, thanks to many hours spent studying indoors. Jake leans over to whisper to me "Not certain a good image to think about", at which I merely snickers.

"We have an indigenous population of humanoid called the Na'vi." The security chief goes on with his speech "They're fond of arrows dipped in a neurotoxin that'll stop your heart in one minute."

'Precisely, a neurotoxin drawn by a plant called _Scorpioflora Maxima_.' I think, remembering very well the lessons about Pandoran flora.

"And they have bones reinforced with naturally occurring carbon fiber. They are very hard to kill." The military says. Now it is my time to make a sarcastic comment "Didn't know we came here for killing them", earning a chuckle from Jake.

"As head of security, it is my job to keep you alive." The military suddenly turns toward me, and I find myself looking straight inside his icy blue eyes, feeling as if he's looking straight at me despite being discretely away from him.

"I will not succeed. Not with all of you." His tone becomes deeper, almost solemn, but only for a moment "If you wish to survive, you need to cultivate a strong mental attitude. You've got to obey the rules. Pandora rules. The rules are there for a reason, they're not for you to disobey them of piss on them... hey you, dumb-nuts!" he suddenly stops his speech to yell at someone. Looking at the direction he was looking at, I notice that the person he's yelling at is Norm, who straighten up with a scared face.

"Yes, you! This is for both soldiers and lab rats, so you'd better stop dozing off and listen carefully!" the military scolds him while Norm still looks shaken and Tom, sitting beside him, merely shakes his head. Poor Norm...

As the security chief starts explaining the so-very-important 'Pandora Rules' –which are basically things I already know, such as never 'leaving home' without the exo-pack or never forgetting the Army dog tags–, Jake whispers to me, very lowly to make sure not to be heard "Nothing like an old-school safety brief to put your mind at ease" at which I chuckle and whisper back "Yeah, tell me about it. Kinda reminds me of Dad, though", earning a nod of approval by Jake.

"This is an hard place to live." The security chief begins talking again, and his voice is once more deeper and solemn "It is not a walk in the park, but the money's good. Try and make sure to stay alive and spend it when you rotate back, sixty months from now."

Seems like the safety brief's over with this last statement, since everybody's standing up and heading toward the designed places for the next three years.

"As if I'd ever wish to rotate back to that rubbish dump." I spitefully say while Jake and I reunite with Norm and Tom outside the main building in order to head toward the bio-lab and check on our Avatars "Better die in here than live one more single day on Earth again, I tell you"

"I couldn't agree more with you, but you gotta live up with that" Tom says while Norm remains silent, obviously still ashamed from before "sooner or later, we'll all rotate back. This is only a temporary place to stay."

"You said the same thing about your apartment in Brooklyn, and that was, like, eight years ago. And if I recall it right, you were still living in there the day before the departure." I state bitterly, earning a snort from Tom and a chuckle from Jake and even Norm "And speaking of which, will you ever stop it with your foolish Zen statements? They're getting on my nerves."

"Someone got up on the wrong side of the cryo-bed today" Norm stated matter-of-factly while Tom pouted, pretending to be offended by my unrespect.

"Damn right. And you know what might happen when I wake up badly" I says bitterly before closing in the usual stubborn silence of every time I feel frustrated. My three friends merely shake their head, knowing way too much that the only thing they can do is leave me alone and let me cool down.

That's it. I'm on Pandora now. I'm going to see my Avatar and finally get to know my personal idol, Dr. Grace Augustine.

But none of that will ever cancel the only sure thing of this whole new experience filled with doubts: I'm merely a guest here, for not saying an intruder. And in about three years, I'll eventually have to rotate back with Tom, Jake and Norm. Back to the place where I lost more than I achieved, such as Mom, Dad and little Gaia.

No matter what, I couldn't achieve the only thing I've ever wanted: stay on Pandora forever.

_**Na'vi Dictionary**_

_**Wiya: damn!**_

_**Skxawng: moron**_

**Hooray, I'm finally done with the first chapter. So, what do you think? Do you like Mel? What on Earth –literally– happened back on Earth to make her hate her homeland so much? What happened to her parents? Who's Gaia? **

**And most important, how will Tom fit into the story?**

**Find out in the next chapters!**

**See ya soon! **


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